


Shame Sack Snake

by totallybusy



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-04-25 15:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14381856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/totallybusy/pseuds/totallybusy
Summary: Based off of this:http://totallybusy.tumblr.com/post/156743286469/earlgreytea68-vintar-vintar-i-used-to-getEames would really like to know what is wriggling in that grocery bag, and why the man in the sharp suit is carrying it. He'd like to know other things about that man as well.





	Shame Sack Snake

**Author's Note:**

> Not beta'd or even proof read.

Eames prided himself on being highly observant when it came to his fellow man. While he wasn’t a huge proponent of deducing facts about people’s lives from their shoe strings, he did like to watch his fellow commuters on the bus, and try to discern what was going on in their day. 

There was a woman in a drab sweatshirt with her head buried in a book. A man sitting at the back of the bus having a hushed and intense discussion about an argument and over reactions. Probably with a girlfriend, but could certainly be a boyfriend. Another woman who seemed to have pulled off the impressive feat of actually resting against the rocking and jerking bus window. She did pick her head up everytime the bus slowed down so he wasn’t too worried about the woman missing her stop.

The bus came slowed to a stop with the usual scream of brakes, and a dapper young man with a pinched expression came up the steps. Eames kept a bland expression on his face, pretending to stare vacantly forward as he watched the man sit down on the broad connected seats in the front. He was dressed in an impeccable three piece suit in a subdued grey tone, with a flash of jewel colored tie. Incongruously, he was carrying a cloth sack in a plastic grocery bag. The man set it gently on the seat beside him, cast a furtive look around, and then settled back against his seat to look out the front window. 

As the bus lurched forward, and Eames continued to watch the man, he caught an unexpected movement. The grocery bag had moved. Eames stopped watching the man, and started watching the grocery bag. It had moved again. It seemed to be on the verge of wriggling. The man looked down at the bag, and placed a restricting hand on it, again casting a look around at the other riders, as though checking to see if anyone had noticed. Eames averted his eyes, pretending he had not been watching the man’s groceries rustle.

The bus lurched to a stop, and a brace of teen girls came giggling up the back entrance. Eames gallantly rose to offer them his pair of seats, and went has causally as he could over to the set of connected seats by the front of the bus. He sat down in the third seat from the front, only the grocery bag between himself and the sharply dressed man. The man was stoutly looking out the front window. 

As the bus moved forward and the man continued to look away, some of the plastic bag fell down slightly, revealing more of the cloth sack within. Being a curious person, with a poor sense of boundaries, Eames reached out and gently touched the sack, trying to discern what was inside. He quickly snatched his hand back when the something within undulated under his hand. 

His sudden movement had attracted the attention of the bag’s owner. Seeing Eames’ retracting hand, the man asked waspishly, “Can I help you?” 

Eames offered his most charming smile. “Darling, I’m simply dying of curiosity. What on earth do you have wriggling around in your grocery bag?”

The man flushed, and seemed to deflate a bit in his suit. “I was sort of hoping no one would notice,” he said in a quieter, more subdued tone. 

“I won’t tell anyone,” Eames said, keeping his voice as low as the rush of bus noises would allow. “This is purely for my own edification. Go on, give us a hint.”

The man gave him an assessing look, then leaned over the grocery bag and said, “Please don’t be alarmed, but it’s my snake.” He searched Eames’ face for signs of alarm, but Eames only offered a delighted grin.

“Why have you brought your snake on a bus, poppet?”

The man’s brows came together and he sent a truly withering look down at the bag. “Because she pried off and ate part of her snake hook! She’s usually pretty well behaved for a python, but this just goes beyond the pale.”

Eames failed at suppressing his smile. “I see; naughty snakes get the shame sack, is it?”

The man blushed further. “Don’t call it that. It’s common to transport snakes in bags, and since my car was broken I wanted to be covert.”

“Oh you certainly are that,” Eames agreed. “I’m sure no one else noticed your bag of furiously wriggling groceries.”

The man narrowed his eyes at Eames. “I can’t tell if you’re trying to insult me, or flirt with me,” he said flatly.

“This is my stop,” Eames replied lightly, seeing the tell-tale sign of the building through the wide window. He scrounged through his pocket for a business card, and slipped it boldly into the chest pocket of the man’s suit. “After you’re done at the vet, perhaps you could call on me, and I could insult you some more. If you were keen.”

The man extracted the card from his pocket, examined Eames and the card through slitted eyes for just a moment, and then offered a smile Eames was thrilled to see was framed with dimples. “I suppose you think you’re charming,” he said. “You don’t even know my name.”

Eames placed a solemn hand over his heart, and the other on a pole as the bus lurched to stop again. “I shall think of you fondly until I come into possession of that artefact. Until that sweet moment, good evening.”

Eames jumped off the last bus step and turned to watch the man through the window as the bus pulled away. The man watched him with an arched brow before turning away. Eames sighed with a slight wistfulness but was surprised by the vibration of his mobile in his pocket.

He fished it out and broke into a wide grin at the message he saw. “I’ll show you a shame sack. Hiss hiss, Arthur.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is totally out of character, and I acknowledge that. But I didn't want to study for my exams, so I wrote this instead.


End file.
